MajorRobin Olds

Ace in WWII and Vietnam

An "Army brat," born in Honolulu, Hawaii on 14 July 1922, Robin Olds attended West
Point and graduated in 1943. He immediately joined the 479th Fighter
Group, the only Group in the Eighth Air Force still equipped with the
P-38. Arriving in England in May, 1944, Olds scored his first kills on
August 14.

Flying a P-38J, "Scat II," on a low-level mission over Montmirail, he
spotted two bogeys far in front of him, heading to his right, about 200
feet off the deck.

He pulled behind them and ID'd them as FW-190's. At
400 yards behind the trailing plane, he fired a six-second burst,
hitting the left wing and then pulling his gunfire onto the fuselage.
Big pieces flew off, flame and smoke poured out, and the airplane
rolled off to the right. Turning his attention to the second plane, he
did not see the first one hit the ground. As the second plane pulled a
full 360 turn, Captain Olds stayed with him. From dead astern, he fired
a five-second burst and observed many hits. The Focke Wulf zoomed up
and the pilot bailed out. Eleven days later, over the city of Rostock,
Olds downed three Bf-109s, making him an ace, the last P-38 ace of the
Eighth Air Force.

After his group re-equipped with P-51 in the fall of 1944, Olds
scored again on October 6. He did not score again until February 9,
1945, when flying P-51D #4472922 SCAT VI, he used the new K-14
gunsight to get a Bf-109 over Magdeburg. Now Major Olds, at some 450
yards from his target, he let the K-14 calculate the deflection and
fired, surprising himself somewhat when his first burst hit the German
fighter. He closed in and fired twice more, his third burst sending the
Messerschmitt down, his seventh victory.

Over Berlin on Feb. 14, he scored two more and on March 19 two more
- a Bf 109 and an Fw 190. On April 7, while escorting some B-24's over
Duneberg, he spotted contrails that had to belong to some Me 262 jets.
He dived down on them and fired a long-range burst, with little effect.
Closer to the bombers, he had more success against a Bf 109, his last
kill of WWII. By the end of
his tour he was commander of the 434th.

In February 1946 General Olds started flying P-80 jets at March
Field with the first squadron so equipped. In October 1948 he went to
England under the U.S. Air Force Royal Air Force Exchange Program and
served as Commander of No. 1 Fighter Squadron at RAF Tangmere. The
squadron was equipped with the Gloster Meteor jet fighter.

He did not fly combat during the Korean War. From 1955 to 1965 he
commanded two wings in Europe and in September
1966 took over the 8th Tactical Fighter Wing at
Ubon, Thailand. Entering the air war over North
Vietnam as a 44-year-old colonel, he flew an F-4C Phantom II named
"Scat XXVII".

Olds planned and led "Operation
Bolo," a
fighter sweep against NVAF MiG-21s on 2
January 1967. He shot down one MiG-21 that
day and added another MiG over Phuc Yen
Airfield on 4 May. Two weeks later, on the 20th,
he destroyed two more MiG-21s.

He returned to the United States in December 1967 and served as
Commandant of Cadets at the U.S. Air Force Academy through January
1971. General Olds assumed the position of Director of Aerospace Safety
in the Air Force Inspection and Safety Center at Norton Air Force Base,
Calif., in February 1971. He retired to the ski slopes of
Steamboat Springs, Colorado on 1 June 1973. General Olds passed away on June 14, 2007.

Aerial Victories: 16 confirmed (12 in WWII and 4 in
Vietnam) and one damaged.

Medals: Air Force Cross, Silver Star with 3 Oak
Leaf Clusters, Distinguished Flying Cross with 4
OLCs, Air Medal with 39 OLCs, British Distinguished
Flying Cross, and the French Croix de Guerre